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HISTORY " **£''?* 

OF THE 

CHURCH IN SILVER STREET, 

LONDON, 

DELIVERED AT THE 

LAYING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE 

OF THEIR 

^eto Cftapel, • 

IN 

FALCON SQUARE, 

ON THE SEVENTEENTH OF MAY, MDCCCXLII. 

BY JAMES BENNETT, D.D. 



LONDON: '•*'>'* ■,« , 

PRINTED BY WILSON AND OGILVY, SKINNER STREET; 

And sold by 
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROW. 

1842. 



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NOTICE. 



If the excursive nature of the following sketch 
demands an apology, the reader should be 
informed, that to embody the substance of what 
was delivered extemporaneously, after laying 
the foundation of the New Chapel, was the aim 
of the writer ; as this was the request of the 
audience, which led to the present publication. 

Some additional information is, however, 
inserted, especially concerning the Presbyterian 
Church, which preceded the Congregational, in 
Silver Street ; for the limits of the time allotted 
to this part of the service made it necessary to 
abridge what had been prepared. 

For more enlarged acquaintance with the 
general history of the Xon-conformist churches, 
the reader must be referred to Xeale's History 
of the Puritans; Calamy's Xon-Conformist's 
Memorial ; Wilson's History of Dissenting 
Churches in London ; Bogue and Bennett's 
History of Dissenters; and Bennett's History 
of Dissenters during the last Thirty Years. 



HISTORY 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 



That infinitely glorious Being, in whose 
comprehensive view past, present, and future 
are all assimilated, but not confounded, has 
taught us, by the inspired narratives of his Word, 
that the former history of he Church may 
eminently contribute to its present prosperity 
and future duration. As, then, the whole is 
made up of its parts, may we not hope that 
what has long been proved true of the universal 
church, may still hold good when applied to 
one humble member of that august body for 
which the world stands ? Particular history is, 
indeed, less grand and imposing than the theme 
of the historian by emphasis ; but> being more 
definite, in proportion as it is more limited, 
while the minor story may with greater ease 
be grasped and retained, local interests create, 
also, strong individual attachments, and awaken 
pleasant reminiscences seldom enjoyed by 
those who range over a wider space. 
B 



2 HISTORY OF THE 

Assemblies of the faithful have, for nearly 
two hundred years, been held in that central 
part of London called Silver Street, leading 
from Wood Street into Falcon Square and 
Aldersgate Street. The place of worship, origi- 
nally erected for a Presbyterian congregation, 
was, in consequence of the persecutions of 
those times, hidden from view in what was 
called Meeting House Yard, and held as the pri- 
vate property, probably, of one of the members 
of the society; because, until the passing of 
the Toleration Act, the possessions of a dissent- 
ing congregation were not legally secure. Pre- 
viously, however, to the Revolution, Charles IL 
granted to this congregation, under his own 
hand, a license, which was, for many years, 
kept framed and suspended in their vestry. 

It is not certain w T hether the building was 
erected immediately after the fire of London, 
when the silenced non-conformists began to 
preach again to many of their former flocks, 
whom the conflagration had deprived of the 
parochial buildings ; or whether the passing of 
King Charles's indulgence, in 1672, encouraged 
the society to provide a place of worship. 

The congregation, however, was collected, 
soon after what has been called Black Bartho- 
lomew's Day, by Dr. Lazarus Seaman, one of 
the two thousand ministers ejected from the 
establishment by the Act of Uniformity. He 
had held the living of Allhallows, Bread Street, 
and his charge now consisted chiefly of his 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 3 

former hearers, by whom he was justly held in 
high esteem. He died in Warwick Court, 
Newgate Street, in September 1635. 

He was succeeded by Dr. Thomas Jacomb, 
the ejected incumbent of St. Martin's, Lud- 
gate, who died at the house of the Countess 
of Exeter, in Little Britain, on the 27th of 
March, 1687. These Presbyterian ministers 
were eminent for ability and learning. The 
library of the former was sold for seven hundred 
pounds, and that of the latter for thirteen 
hundred; equivalent to what would now be 
thought an immense sum for a private collec- 
tion. But the ejected ministers were the elite 
of their day. 

John Howe, A.M. was the next pastor ; but 
as he was an Independent, and demands special 
notice, we shall devote to him some pages at the 
end of this historic sketch. 

Daniel Williams, CD., who bequeathed to 
the Dissenters the library in Redcross Street, 
was, for a short time, assistant to Mr. Howe. 

John Shower, having been before invited, 
now removed from the care of the English 
Church at Rotterdam, to assist Mr. Howe, 
and so high was the estimation in which this 
writer on Eternity was held, that it used to be 
said, two such men as Shower and Howe were 
too much for one congregation. They ought, 
indeed, to have spread their usefulness over a 
much wider space ; of which Shower seems 
afterwards to have been convinced. 



4 HISTORY OF THE 

Thomas Reynolds, having finished his studies 
in Holland, occupied the place of assistant- 
preacher in Silver Street, from which Mr. 
Shower removed. In a short time, however, 
Mr. Reynolds, too, changed his sphere, and be- 
came an eminently useful minister of the con- 
gregation at what has been called the Weigh 
House, as it was a place of worship built over 
the King's Weigh House. 

John Spademan, though the son of an ejected 
minister, was, at first, a Conformist, holding the 
living of Swayton, in Lincolnshire. But con- 
science compelling him to quit the establish- 
ment, he went over to Rotterdam, where, as 
pastor of the English Church, he was held in 
great esteem by foreign divines. After the 
Restoration he became colleague, and in 1705, 
a short time before his death, successor to Mr. 
Howe. Mr. Spademan was also tutor to the Serai - 
minary for the Ministry in Hoxton Square ; where 
he was succeeded by Capel, called Capellus,who 
had been driven, by the revocation of the edict of 
Nantz, from the chair of Hebrew in the 
University of Saumur. Thus early the non- 
conformists began to provide for a succession of 
learned ministers. 

Samuel Rosewell, A.M., was the son of that 
pastor, at Rotherhithe, whose trial has con- 
tributed to brand Judge Jefferies with the 
epithet of the execrable. After assisting Mr. 
Spademan at Silver Street, and joining with the 
celebrated Dr. Grosvenor, in the Lord's day 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 5 

evening lecture, at the Old Jewry, Mr. Rose- 
well's valuable labours were abridged by an 
illness, of which he died on the 7th of April, 
17*22, at the age of forty-two. 

Jeremiah Smith followed, and was noted for 
the part he took in the Trinitarian controversy 
of that day ; of which his u Doctrine of the 
ever-blessed Trinity" is an honourable proof. 
He ceased from his labours on the 20th of 
August, 1723. 

Daniel Mayo, A.M., after having studied 
under the celebrated Witsius, and preached to 
different congregations, succeeded Mr. Smith. 
He was one of Dr. Doddridge's earliest patrons. 
He departed this life on the 13th of June, 1733. 

Thomas Bures was the last pastor of the 
Presbyterian congregation ; for at his death, in 
October 1747, the change occurred which 
brings us to our proper theme — 

THE HISTORY OF THE CONGREGA- 
TIONAL CHURCH. 

At the reformation from Popery, corruptions 
which had silently accumulated during the 
lapse of ages were suddenly assailed and over- 
thrown, as by an earthquake. In our country, 
however, guilty instruments naturally pro- 
duced the imperfect results of this religious 
revolution, which leave us to glory in little 
more than that religious liberty, which rose out 
of the chaos, to throw off eventually every 



6 HISTORY OF THE 

incubus, purge away all impurities, and bring 
back the religion of Jesus to a condition which 
w T ill answer his original idea, and accomplish 
his benevolent design. 

Though the earliest reformers were naturally, 
and we may almost say justifiably, engrossed 
with the doctrines which are essential to salva- 
tion, those who followed were led on to the 
discovery that the discipline of the church 
equally needed to be restored to the divine 
model, in order to secure the efficiency and per- 
petuity of those truths which had been rescued, 
like a half-stifled body, from the ruins of a 
fallen house. 

In this career, the honour of the initiative 
must be assigned to the Presbyterians. Con- 
ceiving that a dominant prelacy had at length 
generated Popery, and, familiarising the church 
to the idea of one minister ruling over many, 
had taught it to bow to one Pope domineering 
over all; the Continental reformers generally 
maintained that all ministers were equal in 
rank — the bishop and the presbyter being but 
two names for the same office, viewed in 
different lights. To Presbyters, therefore, they 
committed the government of the Church, in 
conjunction with certain lay officers, called 
ruling elders. Instead of a gradation of rank 
among ministers, was introduced a succession 
of church courts, commencing with what the 
Scotch call the Kirk, or Church, Session, con- 
sisting of the officers of a single congregation ; 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 7 

advancing to a Presbytery, composed of those 
who belong to several adjoining flocks; rising 
to a synod gathered from a whole county ; and 
terminating in a general assembly of the repre- 
sentatives of the national church. This form 
prevails among the Protestants of Switzerland. 
France, Holland, Scotland, the middle states 
of America, and in the north of Ireland. The 
celebrated reformer, Calvin, has added to it the 
lustre of his name. 

Presbyterianism, at one time, aspired to be 
the permanent established religion of England, 
and to become almost identified with Protes- 
tantism ; for when the Long Parliament, in 
1643, summoned an assembly of divines at 
Westminster, to consider the affairs of religion, 
the great majority were Presbyterians, who 
would have established their system with all the 
force of law. 

This consummation was, however, prevented 
by five members called the dissenting bre- 
thren,* and afterwards known as Indepen- 
dents. If it be asked, how came this mi- 
nority thus to differ from those with whom, 
in so many points, they cordially agreed, 
we answer — the arrows of persecution overshot 
their mark, as when the grand enemy of Chris- 
tian liberty instigated the Jews to crucify the 
Lord of Glory. For they who fled from the 

* Their names were Bridge, Burroughes, Goodwin, Nye, 
and Simpson ; but the Scotch commissioners speak of some 
ten or eleven Independents in the synod. 



8 HISTORY OF THE 

cruelties of Archbishop Laud were kindly re- 
ceived in Holland, where they became Inde- 
pendents ; as their predecessors had become 
Presbyterians by fleeing to Geneva, from the 
persecutions of the Popish Queen Mary. 

The germ of the new principles, previously 
sown in England by one Brown, had been ren- 
dered in a great measure abortive, by his in- 
ferior character, and his denunciation of all 
societies that rejected his views. But when 
superior men found themselves in a foreign 
land, they calmly reviewed the whole question 
of ecclesiastical discipline, compared what they 
had seen in their own country with the foreign 
Protestant churches which were Presbyterian, 
and tried them all by the word of God. 

They arrived, therefore, at this conclusion — 
that Christ, the only legislator of the church, 
had neither appointed a Pope to govern the 
whole, nor diocesan bishops to rule other 
ministers — nor Presbyterian courts to control 
congregations— but had made each assembly of 
the faithful a church, with authority to manage 
its own spiritual affairs, the pastor being the 
true scriptural bishop ; and the pecuniary or 
temporal concerns being entrusted to deacons, 
who were not ministers of the Word, but chosen, 
as well as the pastor or bishop, by the suf- 
frages of the church*. 



* Robinson, one of their number, having, in a Latin 
declaration of their faith and order, employed the adverb 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 9 

The door being opened by Providence, the re- 
fugees returned to their native land, confirmed in 
these views by a practical proof of their effects. 
Some of them, being called to the Westminster 
Assembly, opposed the design of compelling 
the whole nation to submit to the Presbyterian 
discipline. As Independency was the parent 
of religious liberty, and Toleration, having been 
for ages unknown, was thought intolerable, 
it w T as denounced, as " the great Diana of 
the Independents." The prejudiced world 
took its best friend for a deadly foe, that would 
reduce both church and state to a Babel of con- 
fusion ; concluding that no nation could exist 
where every one was left at liberty to think and 
act for himself in religion — accountable to God 
alone. 

But, through torrents of reproach and storms 
of persecution, the rational, benign, and Chris- 
tian principle has been working its way to vic- 
tory and triumph universal. Where is now the 
man of sense who will venture to argue against 
religious liberty ? Who will not confess, that, 
as civil government cannot answer for our souls, 
at the day of judgment, it should not dictate 
to our consciences in this state of probation ? 
Its proper province being the good order of 
society, those who peaceably obey the civil 

independent er, to express the right of each church to manage 
its own affairs independently of foreign control, they were 
called Independents by others ; though they themselves prefer 
the term Congregationalists. 

B 2 



10 HISTORY OF THE 

laws ought not to be burthened with ecclesias- 
tical impositions, but are entitled to all the ad- 
vantages of the social state, while, acting upon 
their own views of faith and worship, they 
leave to others the same liberty which thev 
claim for themselves. 

From the passing of the Toleration Act, the 
first charter of religious liberty, imperfect as it 
was, our country dates its peace and prosperity. 
No more revolutions; no emigration of the 
religious to foreign lands, except on voluntary 
missions to extend the sway of u the glorious 
gospel of the blessed God," Even those who 
adopt other religious views, now gladly repose 
under the sacred shade of the tree which Inde- 
pendents planted, and watered with their tears 
and their blood. The adherents of Rome itself 
are silent on the right, or at least the expe- 
diency, of coercing conscience, and sometimes 
utter faint whispers in favour of the liberty 
which they justly enjoy. 

But by what magic could a few men provide 
for this triumph, amidst an opposing assembly 
of the mightiest minds which our country has 
produced ? The diminutive fraction was a 
mighty host ; for the native metal had been, by 
the fire of persecution and the blows of its 
hammer, converted to steel. The Scotch Pres- 
byterian commissioners to the Westminster 
assembly, confessed the skill, the courage, and 
the perseverance, with which the advocates of 
independence and liberty baffled the efforts of 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 11 

those who would have shewn the truth of 
Milton s words — " New presbyter is old priest, 
writ large." The force of truth soon brought 
numerous accessions to the determined band, 
which derived equal credit and strength from 
the great names of Owen and Howe. The 
former, who became Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, 
had, as a Presbyterian, acquired celebrity by 
writing for the parliament a display of Armi- 
nianism ; but, on examination, he became 
an Independent, and advised all who deter- 
mined not to come to the same conclusion, 
to beware of investigation. Howe, the most 
sublime writer of his own, or perhaps any 
other day, was already an Independent when 
appointed chaplain to the Protector. 
• The officers of the army, and many of the 
soldiers, having adopted the same principles, 
spread them in their marches through the 
country ; but in Scotland, where they entered as 
conquerors, they gained no victories for In- 
dependency. " Booted apostles" suited Ma- 
homet, and secured the triumphs of the Koran; 
but the Captain of our salvation has said, u put 
up thy sword ; for all they that take the sword 
shall perish by the sword." Even when it 
hangs quietly in its sheath, the arguments of the 
polemic who wears it become blunt, in propor- 
tion as his sword is known to be sharp. Scot- 
land, however, was left by the victors in quiet 
possession of its beloved Presbytery ; for they 
must have been grossly recreant to their own 



12 HISTORY OF THE 

principles if they had forced them upon others. 
After a hundred and fifty years, Independency 
was introduced by the legitimate arms of evi- 
dence, George Moir, of Aberdeen, was, by 
reading Lord Chancellor King's Enquiry into 
the Constitution of the Primitive Church, con- 
vinced that tjie first churches were, by the 
Apostles, made independent of each other ; 
and, seeing the deplorable effects of the Pres- 
byterian establishment at that time, he joined 
with a small band to erect a building for the 
worship of an Independent Church. The 
writer of this sketch opened it, in 1797 ; and, 
from nine members, they have multiplied to 
hundreds, Dr. Philip, of the Cape of Good 
Hope, the liberator of the Hottentots, was one 
of their pastors. There are now between one 
and two hundred of these churches, who have 
reckoned among their pastors a Greville Ewing 
and a Ralph Wardlaw ; and the Congregational 
Union for the diffusion of the Gospel in Scot- 
land has been pronounced, by men of other 
communions, the most useful body which that 
country contains. 

The Restoration woke the Presbyterians of 
England from the dream of domination over 
other men's consciences ; and this, which was 
the larger sect, has, among us. withered away 
under the blight of heterodoxy ; while the Inde- 
pendent churches have increased to thousands, 
who have had the happiness of seeing their 
ancient antagonists adopt the principles of 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 13 

religious liberty which they once denounced ; 
many of them even contending that though 
their system, unlike Independency, is capable 
of being established by the state, this would be 
as contrary to the design of Christ as it would 
prove injurious to the best interests of mankind. 
From this introduction we now turn to the 
history of the Independent Church which once 
assembled in Silver Street. 

Philip Nye, A.M. was the first minister, when 
the church was formed during the Protectorate, 
but assembled in a different part of London. He 
was born about the year 1596, and entered as 
a commoner of Brazen Xose College, Oxford ; 
though he removed to Magdalen Hall, to enjoy 
the ministry of a Puritan. Having proceeded 
A.M in 162*2, and taken orders, he preached 
at St. Michael's, Cornhill, till, fleeing from 
Laud's persecutions, he officiated at Arnheim, 
in Guelderland, down to the year 1640. On 
his return, he became minister of Kimbolton ; 
but was, in 1643, appointed, with Stephen 
Marshall, whose daughter he had married, to 
accompany the Parliament's commissioners to 
Scotland. He was afterwards presented to the 
Rectory of Acton ; but, though forward in 
taking the Covenant, and drawing up the 
Directory which was to supersede the Common 
Prayer, when the assembly prepared to enforce 
the Presbyterian discipline, he became con- 



14 HISTORY OF THE 

spicuous as one of the dissenting brethren, or 
Independents. 

The increase of their body having overcome 
the influence of the Presbyterians, the congre- 
gationalists obtained permission to hold, at the 
Savoy, in 1658, an assembly, in which the 
majority were what are called laymen. Though 
Dr. Owen drew up the declaration of their 
faith and order, Philip Nye took the lead in the 
synod. At the Restoration, he w r as deprived of 
his living, and thrown, with a family, on the 
voluntary contributions of his flock, of which 
he was called the teacher, and John Loader, 
who had been ejected from the same place, 
the pastor. 

1674. — Thos. Cole, A.M. succeeded. Having 
been educated at Westminster School, he en- 
tered at Christ Church, Oxford, and became, 
in 1656, tutor and principal of St. Mary's 
Hall. In addition to many eminent divines, 
he educated the celebrated John Locke, a name 
more dear to liberty and philosophy than to 
theology, on which he tried his powers. At 
the Restoration, Mr. Cole retired to Nettlebed, 
where Samuel, the father of the famous John 
Wesley, was his pupil. Called to succeed 
Mr. Nye, he was publicly set apart on the 7th 
of February, 1674, when Dr. Owen, and other 
independent ministers, officiated. Mr. Cole was 
a distinguished opponent to what was termed 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 15 

Neonomianism, or the opinion that Christ's 
redemption procured the introduction of a new 
and easier law, by obedience to which we are 
justified. The opposite doctrine, of justification 
by the righteousness of Christ alone, imputed 
to us, and received by faith, gave to our divine 
such peace in death, that he said to a friend, 
" You are come to hear my last dying groans ; 
but know, when you hear them, that it is 
the sweetest breath I ever drew since I knew 
Christ." He departed on the 16th of Septem- 
ber, 1697, in his seventieth year. 

This champion for " the faith once delivered 
to the saints," gives occasion to observe, how 
superior are the appointments of heaven to all 
the calculations of men. Nothing can be more 
plausible than the common objection to Inde- 
pendency — that, if all the churches be left to 
think and act for themselves, bound by no au- 
thoritative confessions or creeds, they will run 
into every variety of error. To this theoretical 
conclusion we oppose the testimony of fact. 
No communion has been, through many ages, 
so steady in its attachment to the ancient faith, 
or can boast so perfect a uniformity among 
thousands of congregations, as that which has 
been supposed most liable to the inroads of 
error and the alienations of theological debate. 
Mr. Cole stood firm against the specious com- 
mencements of ajDostacy from that truth 
which is still dear to our churches, as in the 
days of Owen and Howe ; and several Pres- 



16 HISTORY OF THE 

byterian congregations, perceiving the tenden- 
cies of the ministers to depart from their own 
creed, became independent, that they might 
remain orthodox. Liberty was discovered to 
be the best safeguard to truth. 

1698. — The next pastor was John Singleton, 
A.M. He was nephew to Dr. Owen, and be- 
came a student at Christ Church, Oxford; but 
having been removed by Charles's commis- 
sioners, he went to Holland, and studied medi- 
cine ; so that he was called Dr. Singleton, 
though he merely gave advice to friends. On 
his return to England, he lived in the family of 
Lady Scot, and preached in the neighbouring 
town of Hertford. At the death of Mr. Cole, 
whom he had assisted, he was ordained pastor 
of the church, in March 1698. His learning 
led to his appointment as tutor in the seminary 
for the ministry, that was situated, first in 
Hoxton Square, and then in Islington. He 
died on the 18th of February, 1705-6. 

1705. — Daniel Neale, A.M., the well-known 
historian of the Puritans, began his ministry as 
assistant to Dr. Singleton, and, on his death, 
succeeded to the pastoral office, which he held 
thirty-six years. His usefulness was so great 
that the church was obliged to remove to a 
larger place in Jewin Street. He was one of 
the earliest advocates of inoculation for the 
small-pox, which, in a private interview, he 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 17 

recommended to the royal family. Mr. Neale 
married the sister of the celebrated Dr. Natha- 
niel Lardner, and was assisted in his ministry 
by Mr. Lister, one of the earliest students of 
Dr. Doddridge. He died on the 4th of April, 
1743, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. 

1743.— Roger Pickering, A.M. F.R.S., was 
educated at one of our universities, for the 
establishment; but, on becoming an Inde- 
pendent, he joined the church in Carey Street, 
under the ministry of Mr. Thomas Bradbury. 
Chosen to succeed the historian of the Puritans, 
Mr. Pickering was set apart to the pastoral 
office, on the 12th of August, 1743. In the 
following year, he was elected Fellow of the 
Royal Society, and published several papers in 
the Philosophical Transactions. He was a 
most popular lecturer at Salter's Hall, where he 
was succeeded by Dr. Philip Furneaux. 

It was while Mr. Pickering was pastor that 
the Independent Church removed to Silver 
Street ; for on the death of Mr. Bures, who has 
been mentioned as the last minister of the Pres- 
byterian congregation, his flock invited Mr. 
Pickering, who removed to Silver Street with 
the greater part of his charge. This may ap- 
pear strange ; but we have seen that the two 
denominations, though at first hostile, after- 
wards so coalesced that Mr. Howe, an avowed 
Independent, was pastor of the Presbyterians, 



18 HISTORY OF THE 

whose descendants now adopted the Indepen- 
dent discipline. 

Mr. Pickering was, however, more popular 
than prudent; for his philosophical pursuits 
involved him in expensive habits, and, perhaps, 
also led him into the incongruous speculations 
of a distillery, in which he failed. He, there- 
fore, resigned the ministry in disgrace and de- 
pression, and died on the 18th of May, 1757. 

1752. — Mr. Samuel Hay ward was a man of 
another order. Having been an eminently use- 
ful country pastor, at Saffron Walden, Potter's 
Pury, and Poole, in Dorsetshire, he removed, 
in 1752, to Silver Street. He engaged with 
Mr. Pike in a casuistical lecture, at Little St. 
Helen's, which led to a publication well known 
among dissenters by the title of Pike and 
Hay ward's Cases of Conscience. Great im- 
portance was formerly attached to nice deter- 
minations of the exact bounds which separate 
the lawful from the unlawful ; but we have no 
reason to regret the passing away of that 
fashion. Sin and duty are so often determined 
by delicate circumstances, known only to God 
and the moral agent himself, that a tender and 
enlightened conscience is the best casuist. He 
that lives in communion with God, devoted to 
His glory, " has an unction from the Holy 
One, and knows all things ;" for God has said, 
" the meek will He guide in judgment." Mr. 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 19 

Hay ward having lived much in little time, 
died, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, on the 
23d of July, 1757. His funeral sermon was 
preached by the venerable Mr. Brewer, of 
Stepney, to a deeply afflicted congregation, on 
the words of Job, " Have pity upon me, oh ye 
my friends ; for the hand of God hath touched 
me." 

1758. — Mr. John Chater, who had removed 
from the Isle of Wight, was publicly recog- 
nized as pastor at Silver Street, on the 29th of 
June, 1758. About seven years after, Sande- 
man's Letters on Hervey's Theron and Aspasio 
having excited attention, Mr. Chater became 
what is called a Sandemanian, and attempted to 
remodel the church ; which ended in his re- 
moval, in 1765. He was not chargeable, as 
some, with coming in under false colours; nor 
is it known that he took an unfair advantage of 
the office he had acquired while holding other 
sentiments, to turn all things into a new 
channel ; though the conflict that arose might 
excite suspicion of such an attempt. 

1767. — Jacob Dalton, who had been educated 
under Dr. Conder, at Mile End, held the pas- 
toral office from June 1767 to the end of 1769, 
when he removed to Coventry. 

1770. — In the spring of the following year, 
William Smith, A.M., of Edinburgh, came to 



20 HISTORY OF THE 

Silver Street. As he kept a boarding-school at 
Camber well, he built a place of worship near 
his own house, where he preached on one part 
of the Lord's day. 

David Bogue, A.M., a licentiate of the 
Church of Scotland, became assistant to Mr. 
Smith, and morning preacher at Silver Street, 
from 1774, till he removed to Gosport, three 
years after. Of this venerable man it is not 
necessary to say more, as his life has been pub- 
lished by the author of this sketch, w r ho studied 
under him at Gosport. The historian of the 
dissenting churches of London, says, " For 
many years past, Mr. Bogue has supported a 
respectable seminary in the same town, and has 
supplied many destitute churches with able 
ministers. His abilities as a tutor pointed him 
out some years ago to the London Missionary 
Society, as a proper person to superintend the 
education of such young men as they employ 
in the w r ork of missions. Of this society he is 
an active member, and has printed two ser- 
mons preached at their annual meetings. He 
has likewise published several other single ser- 
mons preached upon public occasions. Besides 
these, Mr, Bogue has published, ' An Essay on 
the Divine Authority of the New Testament/ 
which has passed to a second edition ; and he 
is now carrying through the press, in conjunc- 
tion with the llev. James Bennett, of Rumsey, a 
much larger w r ork. This is ' A History of 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 21 

Dissenters from the Revolution of 1688, to the 
year 1808,' to be completed in four volumes, 
two of which are already published. " Dr. 
Bogue, who has been called the father of the 
Missionary Society, died at the meeting of an 
auxiliary to that society, at Brighton, on the 
25th of October, 1825, aged seventy-five. 

In the neighbouring congregation, at Monk- 
well Street, when the celebrated orator, Dr. 
Fordyce, attracted a large and fashionable au- 
dience, his colleague, Mr. Toller, withdrew to 
Silver Street, and took Mr. Bogue's place. 
The scene, however, was soon reversed, for Dr. 
Fordyce retired, and the congregation even- 
tually removed from Silver Street to Monkwell 
Street; after which, Mr. Smith confined his 
ministry to Camber well, and Mr. Toller also 
withdrew. In a volume of Sermons, published 
by the latter, there is a funeral discourse for 
Peter Wilson, Esq. of Gray's Inn, a pious 
man, who died at the age of twenty-eight ; and 
it is dated Silver Street, July 2, 1 786. Down to 
this time, therefore, Mr. Toller appears to have 
preached there. His printed sermons are or- 
thodox and sensible, but cold. He was the 
uncle of the celebrated minister at Kettering, of 
whom Mr. Robert Hall said, there was but one 
reason why any other man than Mr. Toller 
should preach, and that was because all the 
world could not hear Mr. Toller. 

1789. — Thomas Wills, A.B., a minister of 



22 HISTORY OF THE 

the establishment, had for some time preached 
at Silver Street, on Thursday evenings. He 
had entered into the connexion of the cele- 
brated Countess of Huntingdon, into whose 
family he married; but quitting that con- 
nexion, he took a lease of Silver Street Chapel, 
as it was afterwards called, for twenty years. 
He introduced the Liturgy, and an organ, to 
which he had been accustomed ; and having 
caught much of the spirit of Whitfield, he 
preached in the open air, especially on Tower 
Hill, and greatly enlarged the congregation. 
But the infirmities of age coming upon him, 
and a preacher of Antinomian celebrity, at 
Monkwell Street, having drawn away some of 
his hearers, this venerable minister retired to 
Cornwall, where he died. 

1800. — Mr. Robert Caldwell, who also had 
been a minister in the Countess of Huntingdon's 
connexion, at Dover, followed Mr. Wills. The 
fine talents of the new preacher gave promise 
of great success, but he was, in three years, re- 
moved by death. 

1803. — Evan John Jones was then ordained 
to the ministry at Silver Street Chapel, which 
he much enlarged. He had been an occasional 
preacher at the Tabernacle, in Moorfields, and, 
as he was a man of energy and zeal, he gave 
himself ardently to the promotion of Sabbath 
schools, which were beginning to attract the at- 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 23 

tention of the churches of Christ. The fruits 
of his zeal in this cause still remain, in a school 
which has been a blessing to many. 

Mr. Jones has been censured as a pluralist, 
because he held also Islington Chapel, which 
he rebuilt: but this double charge owed its 
origin to Mr. Wills, who, having come from the 
establishment, and from Lady Huntingdon's 
connexion, had no idea of the unlawfulness of 
such pluralities. That they were a gainful spe- 
culation, has been too hastily assumed ; for 
the divided attention of one pastor prevents 
the prosperity of two flocks. Mr. Jones died 
March 27, 1828, aged fifty-six. 

James Bennett, D.D., took the charge of the 
congregation in Silver Street, in November, 
1828. The care of the College and the congre- 
gation at Rotherham having become too much 
for his health, he acceded to the invitation to 
restore the worship and discipline of the Inde- 
pendents, which have now held their former 
seat about fourteen years. During this time, 
an event occurred which has been recorded in 
the following terms : — " Mr. Robert Taylor, 
who had been a minister in the establishment, 
having become a lecturer in behalf of infidelity, 
boasted that he had challenged all the ministers 
of religion to contest the claims of divine reve- 
lation, and that they all refused to take up the 
glove, conscious that they were deceiving man- 
kind. The author of this volume, deeming it 



24 " HISTORY OF THE 

a duty to make such boasting void, gave 
notice of a course of lectures, at Silver Street 
Chapel, on the Lord's day evening, on the in- 
ternal evidences of revelation, and on Thursday 
evening, on the external ; after which any one 
would be at liberty to question the lecturer on 
the subject of the preceding discourse. Mr. 
Taylor, perceiving for whom this was intended, 
gave notice of his intention to accept the chal- 
lenge. He came ; and, after the lecture, a 
chairman was appointed, and a debate was 
held on ' The Impossibility of Imposture in the 
Miracles recorded in Scripture.' 

" The fame of the first contest drew im- 
mense crowds to the second, which was on 
6 The Jews as Living Witnesses to the Truth of 
Revelation.' The debate was now more ani- 
mated and protracted than before ; and was 
chiefly remarkable for an assertion, hazarded 
by Mr. Taylor, that the Jews never were a na- 
tion, and are not even asserted to have been one 
by the Scriptures ; which was met by an appeal 
to Tacitus, and to a text in the Acts of the 
Apostles, ' After many years I came to bring 
alms to my nation.' 

u The third evening, the crowd was so over- 
whelming, and so great was the chagrin of the 
infidels at the figure which their champion 
made, that they raised a disorderly clamour, 
which rendered it necessary to dissolve the 
assembly, without proceeding to the debate. 
Against the next evening, provision was made 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 25 

to prevent a repetition of the riot, by putting 
up bars to keep off the pressure of the crowd, 
and procuring a strong body of the City police. 
But Mr. Taylor declined to appear ; though one 
of his adherents made a faint attempt to keep 
up the debate. The course of lectures was 
finished and published, with the debates that 
followed on the delivery of each one, under the 
title of i An Antidote to Infidelity/ 

" The efforts of the infidel party, soon after, 
ceased. Mr. Taylor was, indeed, imprisoned, 
at the suit of the Society for the Suppression of 
Vice, for making a mock exhibition of the 
Lord's Supper. His antagonist, at Silver Street, 
applied to the Secretary of State ; and Mr. Taylor 
being liberated, not long after, quitted this 
country for the Continent *." 

It may also gratify the curious in dissenting 
history, to be informed that the ancient Meet- 
ing House, in Monkwell Street, was occupied 
by the Silver Street Sunday School Society, 
from the year 1825 to 1831, when it was taken 
down, and the school-rooms now occupied by 
that institution were built on the site. In the 
year 1840, the pulling down of party walls 
compelled the congregation to remove from 
Silver Street to the Institution in Aldersgate- 
Street; and as this disarrangement was pro° 



* History of the Dissenters during the last thirty years ; 
being a Continuation of the History, by David Bogue and 
James Bennett, p. 231, 2, 3. 

C 



26 HISTORY OF THE 

traded, and the ancient building permanently 
injured, it was finally determined not to renew 
the expiring lease, but to build. A suitable 
site having been procured in Falcon Square, 
abutting on their School Rooms, a few persons 
of the congregation met, and subscribed twelve 
hundred pounds towards the purchase. The 
congregation was informed, in the morning of 
the Lord's day, of what was intended, and 
being requested to bring, in the evening, a state- 
ment of what they would contribute, they did 
so, and the object was accomplished. They 
have, since then, been engaged in raising the 
further sum necessary for the building, into 
which they are to enter, in September 1842. 

Before, however, we close the history of 
Silver Street Chapel, we shall present to the 
reader the memoirs of two distinguished men 
who worshipped in that place ; one a minister 
of the flock, the other an eminent member. 

John Howe, A.M., appeared in the list of 
Presbyterian ministers ; but as he w r as an Inde- 
pendent in sentiment, and worthy of special 
notice, he has been reserved for this place. 
From Loughborough, where he was born, in 
1630, he was taken over to Ireland by his 
father, who had been driven from his living by 
Laud. Having entered early at Cambridge, 
and taken his first degree, Mr. Howe removed 
to Oxford, where he commenced Master of Arts, 
and was elected Fellow of Magdalen College. 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 27 

He was ordained by Mr. Herle, of Winwick, 
assisted by the ministers of the chapels in that 
extensive parish, and began his ministry at 
Great Torrington, in Devonshire, as successor 
to Mr. Lewis Stukely, a celebrated Indepen- 
dent divine*. Business having called him to 
London, Mr. Howe went, at the end of his in- 
tended stay, to Whitehall Chapel, while Oliver 
Cromwell was Protector, whose keen eye marked 
him out as a country minister of no ordinary 
character. He was called to preach there, the 
next week, and to repeat the engagement, till 
Cromwell insisted on his exchanging the pas- 
torate at Torrington for the chaplainship at 
Whitehall, to which he removed his family, 
and where some of his children were born. He 
became a celebrated lecturer at St. Margaret's, 
Westminster. 

He employed his powerful influence in be- 
half of the most deserving of the Episcopalians, 
with whom he had formed friendships that sur- 
vived the numerous changes of those times ; 
and, on one occasion, the Protector said to him, 
" Mr. Howe, you have often asked favours for 



* W T hile at Torrington, Mr. Howe married, on the 1st of 
March, 1654, the daughter of Mr. George Hughes, an in- 
fluential minister of Plymouth, with whom he held a weekly 
correspondence in Latin. A letter from Mr. Hughes, con- 
taining these words, " Sit ros cceli super habitaculum vestrum, 
— may the dew of heaven be on your dwelling," was received by 
Mr. Howe, on the same day that a fire which had broken out 
in his residence was quenched by a shower of rain. 



28 HISTORY OF THE 

others ; I should like to know when you mean 
to ask something for yourself." 

He gave, however, a striking proof that his 
fidelity was equal to his benevolence; for 
when one of the chaplains at Whitehall had 
preached in support of what was called a par- 
ticular faith in prayer, Mr. Howe deemed it his 
duty to shew its fallacy. For faith consists in 
believing what God has said, not in trusting 
the impressions of our own minds, or expecting 
the accomplishment of the particular wishes of 
our hearts. The Protector is said to have 
heard attentively, to have occasionally frowned, 
but to have expressed no offence at this oppo- 
sition to what was deemed a favourite notion of 
his own. 

Mr. Howe continued to be chaplain, after Oliver 
CromwelFs death, but shortly returned to his 
charge at Torrington. At the passing of the Act 
of Uniformity, though many expected thathe who 
had proved himself so liberal would conform, he 
declared that his liberality compelled him to 
dissent from a compulsory uniformity. He was 
now persecuted, and for a time imprisoned for 
preaching in private ; and at length, having an 
increasing family, with a small income, he ac- 
cepted the invitation of LordMazarene to go with 
him to Ireland, as his chaplain. Being detained 
on the Welch coast, he preached in the parish 
church a sermon on Love to God, which is in 
print, and well accounts for the floods of tears 
which it produced. In Ireland, uniformity was 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 29 

less severely enforced, and Mr. Howe, while at 
Antrim, preached in the parochial pulpit, the 
Archbishop declaring, in a meeting of the 
clergy > that he would have Mr. Howe admitted 
into every pulpit. 

On the death of Dr. Seaman, 1675, Mr. 
Howe was invited to succeed him at Silver 
Street, where he had a very distinguished audi- 
tory, and lived in friendship with the most 
eminent divines of the establishment. But it 
may be asked, how an Independent could be- 
come pastor to a Presbyterian congregation ? 
He so strongly objected to exclusive principles 
on church government, that while he was 
studying at Oxford, he w r as asked why he did 
not join the Independent Church at College, 
under the pastoral care of Dr. Thomas Good- 
win ? He replied, u You make too much of 
your peculiar order ; but if you will admit me, 
on catholic principles, as a Christian, I will join 
you." They proved more liberal than he ima- 
gined, for they admitted him on these terms. 
But when Mr. Howe took the pastoral charge of 
the Presbyterians in Silver Street, they had be- 
come virtually Independents ; for they chose 
him without foreign control, and the members 
seem to have been admitted on a profession of 
faith, which are the two vital principles of In- 
dependency. 

But persecution recommencing in great fury, 
the ministry of the Dissenters was suspended, 
and when Lord William Russel was sacrificed 



80 HISTORY OF THE 

to the Popish bigotry and despotism of James, 
Mr. Howe wrote to the widowed lady a beautiful 
letter of condolence, which is on record, and 
which produced further correspondence. Mr. 
Howe now accepted an invitation from Lord 
Wharton, to travel with him on the Continent, 
which led to the settlement of our divine at 
Utrecht, where he preached to the English 
Church, along with Mr. Mead, with whom, also, 
Dr. Gilbert Burnet, afterwards Bishop of 
Sarum, occasionally ministered. 

King James's declaration for liberty of con- 
science having induced Mr. Howe's flock to 
request his return, he previously conferred with 
William, Prince of Orange, who had married 
the daughter of James. The King took an 
early opportunity to see Mr. Howe, to in- 
duce him to encourage addresses to the throne ; 
but he frankly declared, that, though as a 
minister of Christ, he would avail himself of 
every opportunity to preach, he would not 
meddle with political affairs. After the Revo- 
lution, he addressed William at the head of the 
dissenting ministry of London* In the con- 
troversies which subsequently arose, he took 
the side of peace and charity, uniting with Dr. 
Williams, Dr. Bates, and Mr. Alsop, in the 
Lecture at Salters' Hall. 

Worn out with labours and trials, and having 
nearly completed his seventy-fifth year, he died 
on the 2d of April, 1705. He was visited, in 
his last illness, by many distinguished persons,. 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 31 

and, among the rest, by Richard Cromwell, 
whose political innocence was rewarded by 
the safety of his old age. Mr. Howe's conver- 
sation had long been in heaven ; and as he 
drew near to that state, he said to his wife, 
" Though I love you as well as one creature 
ought to love another, if it were put to my 
choice, whether to live with you seven years 
longer or die immediately, I would say, ' die 
this night' " 

To his works, published by Dr. Calamy, in two 
folio volumes, the Rev. Mr. Hunt has added, in 
a second edition, many valuable productions 
which had remained in manuscript in Dr. 
Williams's library; among which are some 
highly characteristic and instructive Lectures, 
delivered in Silver Street. Mr. Child has 
printed a third edition, in one volume. 

The person of Mr. Howe was singularly 
commanding and graceful, and his portrait 
exhibits the os divinum of the poet, which re- 
minds us of " the mouth that spake excellent 
things." Sublimity was the characteristic of 
his mind, but the style of his more finished 
productions was over-wrought, even to obscu- 
rity, which forms a singular contrast with the 
lucid simplicity that surprises and delights us in 
those discourses that were taken down from his 
own lips. From these, an inquirer might learn 
what is the beau ideal of extemporary preach- 
ing ; for Mr. Howe delivered, without notes, 
the careful studies of a well-furnished mind? 



32 HISTORY OF THE 

warm with the emotions of a devotional heart, 
His grand work, " The Living Temple," de- 
signed to shew that the soul of a Christian is 
the temple of God, contains the finest philoso- 
phical defence of natural theology against 
Spinosa, and the most profound view of re- 
vealed truth, in opposition to the errors that 
have infected the Church. " The Blessedness of 
the Righteous," and the treatise on " Delighting 
in God," are less philosophical^ but scarcely less 
profound; though addressed, not so much to 
the intellect, as to the heart. His " Lectures 
on the First Principles of the Oracles of God,'* 
delivered at Silver Street, convey the happiest 
sketch of Christian theology, in that beautiful 
simplicity which constitutes the highest excel- 
lence of style. What Milton was among the 
poets, that was Howe among the divines : 
though his platonism, which he is said to have 
caught from Henry Moore, renders his theology 
less purely scriptural than that of his celebrated 
contemporary, Owen. Dr Watts closed his 
Elegy on the Death of Howe, with this address 
to heaven : — 

" O send us down a soul of equal size, 
Or burn this worthless world, and take us to the skies. rr 

Sir Thomas Abney, a Christian patriot, was 
heir to higher honours than if the blood of all 
the Howards had flowed in his veins ; but he 
was also descended from one of those families 
which heralds pronounce ancient and honour- 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 33 

able. Wilsley, in the county of Derby, the 
family seat for five hundred years, was the 
place of his birth, in January 1639. Early 
deprived of his mother, he was committed, by 
his father, to the care of a pious aunt, Lady 
Bromley, who was honoured to produce those 
religious impressions which rendered him after- 
wards a blessing to the realm. In early life, 
he thought it his glory to be a Puritan, and, 
having adopted the sentiments of the Indepen- 
dents, he joined the Church in Silver Street, of 
which Dr. Jacomb, and, after him, Mr. Howe, 
was pastor. He first married the daughter of 
the celebrated Caryl, and, on her death, he be- 
came, in the year 1700, the son-in-law of Mr. 
John Gunston, of Stoke Newington, whose 
memory the muse of Watts has forbidden to 
die. The name of x\bney also has been handed 
down to posterity by means of its connexion 
with that of Watts, who found in the house of 
Sir Thomas and his descendants, an asylum, for 
thirty- six years, 

Though decidedly devoted to an unfashion- 
able religion, he rose to the highest civic 
honours, for he was chosen, in 1693, sheriff 
of London and Middlesex, and, before the ex- 
piration of his year, alderman of Vintry Ward. 
He received from King William the honour of 
knighthood, and in 1710, some years before the 
usual term, he was elected Lord Mayor, when 
his conduct gave occasion to the assertion, that 
c 2 



34 HISTORY OF THE 

" the house of Hanover owes the throne of 
Britain to a dissenter ;" for, in opposition to a 
majority of the aldermen, he had the courage 
to propose an address from the Common Coun- 
cil to King William, assuring him of their de- 
termination to stand by him against the Pre- 
tender, whom the French king had lately 
proclaimed sovereign of Great Britain. His 
boldness and prudence having triumphed in the 
city, the address not only encouraged the king, 
to whom it was presented while he was with 
the army on the Continent, but gave the tone 
of loyalty to the nation, which re-echoed the 
language of the metropolis from Caithness to 
the Land's End. The King dissolved the Par- 
liament at this favourable moment, and Sir 
Thomas Abney was chosen member for Lon- 
don, of that legislature which passed the act 
for the abjuration of the Pretender, and the 
further establishment of the Protestant succes- 
sion. The bill, which received the royal 
assent the day before King William died, was 
the means of securing the throne to the house 
of Brunswick. A person of distinction, com- 
plimenting this dissenting Lord Mayor, on his 
zeal and address in the critical affair, said, 
" You have done the King more service than if 
you had raised him half a million of money." 

That the dignities to which he was exalted, 
and the popularity he acquired, did not seduce 
his heart from a due regard to " the honour 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 35 

which comes from above,*' may be shewn by 
an anecdote, which will have a very different 
effect on the Christian, and the man of the 
world. In the evening of the day on which he 
entered upon his mayoralty, he withdrew 
silently from the assembly, went to his own 
house, performed the usual family worship, and 
then returned to the company. He probably 
recalled an example which may already have 
occurred to the reader — that of David, who re- 
turned li'om a royal procession, on a national 
feast, u to bless his household." Sir Thomas 
Abney lived to be father of the city of London, 
which received at least as much honour from 
the wisdom, patriotism, and piety of its father, 
as it conferred on him by its population, talents, 
commerce, or wealth. This distinguished 
ornament of the metropolis, the senate, and the 
Church of God, lived to the good old age of 
eighty-three, and departed to higher honours, 
on the 6th of February, 1 7*22. 



On the 17th of May, 1842, at twelve o'clock, 
the foundation stone of the Falcon Square 
Chapel, for the use of the congregation which 
had worshipped in Silver Street, was laid bv 
the pastor, Dr. Bennett, assisted by other minis- 
ters. The Rev. E. Muscut, of St. Neot's, read 
the 87th Psalm, in Dr. Watts's version, which 
was sung by the assembly, for whose accommo- 
dation a ten. had been provided. 



36 HISTORY OF THE 

" God in his earthly temple lays 
Foundations for his heavenly praise ; 
He likes the tents of Jacob well,. 
But still in Sion loves to dwell, 

' i His mercy visits every house 

That pay their night and morning vows ; 

But makes a more delightful stay 

Where churches meet to praise and pray." 

The Rev. Thomas James, of Woolwich, then 
offered up prayer for the divine blessing on 
the undertaking ; after which was lowered the 
stone, containing the following inscription : — 

FALCON SQUARE CHAPEL. 

THIS FOUNDATION STONE WAS LAID 

17 MAY, 1842, 

BY 

JAS. BENNETT, D.D. 

A. DUNCAN, ESQ,. TREASURER, 

J. TARRING, ESQ. ARCHITECT. 

Dr. Bennett having gone through the usual 
form of laying the stone, standing upon it 
delivered the following address : — 

" Should any now ask, as God encouraged the 
children of his people to do, " wdiat mean ye 
by the service which ye have just performed ? ,T 
I answer — " we have this day laid the founda- 
tion for a building consecrated to the worship of 
God and the preaching of the glorious gospel 
of Christ." Whoever, then, has read the 
Scriptures with understanding, and felt the force 
of their grand theme, must have called to re- 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 37 

mernbrance the proclamation of eternal mercy : 
— " Thus saith the Lord ; behold, I lay in 
Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a 
precious corner-stone, a sure foundation : he 
that believeth shall not make haste." — (Isaiah, 
xxviii. 16.) As u otner foundation can no man 
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ ;*' 
should not the hand which laid the stone be 
pressed upon the heart which moved that hand ? 
should not the hand of each one who saw this 
stone laid, be applied to a heart throbbing with 
the anxious inquiry, " Have I built my eternal 
hopes on this foundation ?" Have we a claim 
to those inspired words which Peter addressed 
to the Church of Christ — " to him coming, as 
to a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, 
but chosen of God and precious ; ye, also, as 
lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a 
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices 
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ ?" For, 
" on this rock (says the Saviour) I will build 
my church, and the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail against it." — " Whosoever stumbles at this 
stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it 
shall fall, it shall grind him to powder," 

Join, all ye that rest upon this rock, to send 
to heaven the request that the house of praver 
now founded may echo with that name of Jesus, 
of which eternal truth has said, " neither is 
there salvation in any other." Never may the 
prophet's words apply to this building — " the 
stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam 



38 HISTORY OF THE 

of the timber shall answer to it," in reproaches 
on them that occupy it ; saying, " the house 
built for the preaching of salvation through 
Christ, ye have perverted unto c another gospel, 
which is not another ; ? and now call it c Ichabod,' 
for where is the glory r" But when the foot- 
step of the descending Judge shall shake the 
earth, and hurl all its mightiest edifices into 
chaos, may the very ruins of this house become 
vocal, to testify that here were ever heard 
K words whereby men might be saved !" Here 
may many of those, 

u "Who unconcern'd shall o'er the ruins smile, 
And light their torch at Nature's funeral pile," 

exclaim, iC I was born of God there," Now 
may Jehovah say, " Arise and build, and I will 
be with you, and fill this house with my glory, 
and the gloiy of the latter house shall be greater 
than the former." 

For this day we remember, with no ordinary 
emotions, the adjoining building from which 
we came, and where the Church of Christ had 
worshipped for nearly two hundred years. It 
was not our own ; for, like Paul, it was said of 
him who ministered there, " he preached in his 
hired house." But why hire, when they had 
among them some of the rich and great, and 
the Lord Mayor of this opulent city, who could 
have erected an edifice far beyond our means ? 
Why are we now, for the first time, building for 
ourselves, or rather for our Lord and his 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 39 

Church ? Persecution was the cause of their 
inferior state. Liberty gives us our superiority. 
When that church, of which we may consider 
ourselves a continuation, was first gathered, and 
for many years after, their dissent was con- 
sidered a civil offence, and such a society 
could have no legal hold on property. Indi- 
viduals, therefore, held the building ; for if pri- 
vate property had been assailed, every man 
would have been alarined for his own. But 
though it is probable that some member of the 
church was, at first, the proprietor, the house 
of prayer afterwards came, by the course of 
events, into the hands of strangers. 

Now, however, we enjoy a legal as well as a 
scriptural existence, and can sustain our right 
to our house of assemblies, by the laws of our 
country, as well as by the authority of our God ; 
for " other men laboured, and we have entered 
into their labours/' Our forefathers, the first In- 
dependents, introduced (shall I not say re- 
stored ?) the principle of religious liberty, at the 
price of their own civil liberties,, their property, 
and their blood. We this day enjoy the in- 
estimable benefit. They went back to the 
fountain head, and took the apostolic as the 
truly primitive pattern for their ecclesiastical 
polity, and there found the liberty which had 
for ages been lost. Each congregation of the 
faithful being, by the inspired founders, consti- 
tuted a complete church, independent of the 
authority of other societies, or ministers ; the 



40 HISTORY OF THE 

essence of the constitution of each one gave 
liberty to all. But as that domination over the 
consciences of Christ's free men, which is the cha- 
racteristic of antichrist, had quenched the love 
and the very idea of religious liberty, it was, 
when evoked from the slumber of centuries, de- 
nounced as the great Diana of the Indepen- 
dents. The glorious Revolution of 1688, and 
its first (not ripe) fruits, the Toleration Act, de- 
clared that the long-abused principle was just 
in the sight of God, and essential to peace 
among men. The accession of the House of 
Hanover has secured to us this our sacred 
birth-right, for the sake of which civil liberty 
itself is to us most dear. Under the auspices of 
a Queen who has proved herself to be the 
heiress to the generous principles which seated 
her ancestors on the British throne, we rear 
this house of prayer, in which, at the just 
command of the Eternal King, we shall say 
from the heart, " O Lord, save Queen Victoria, 
and give thy righteousness to the Queen's son." 
And now, why are not the young alone re- 
joicing, as at the building of the second temple, 
delighted with the foundation of the new house of 
prayer ? Why are not the elders, as on that day, 
in tears ; because this house is nothing to the 
former ? Why have we marked out a larger 
foundation than our ancestors thought it pru- 
dent to lay ? — Because our God has so multi- 
plied us, after the oppression of ages, that our 
communicants at the Lord's Supper could 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 41 

scarcely have been accommodated in the build- 
ing first erected in Silver Street ; and the chil- 
dren of our Sabbath Schools would require 
more space than was then provided for those of 
every age. The five Independents, called the 
dissenting brethren, in the Westminster Assem- 
bly, have not only had their successors, who 
have gone on increasing till their churches are 
reckoned by thousands, but, in some instances, 
a single one is equivalent to several of those 
which were founded amidst the tempests of 
ancient days. 

What obligations are laid upon us by the en- 
joyment of liberty bought at such a price, and 
of prosperity so undeserved ! Should we not 
remember that the voice of our God has said, 
" I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing ? 
The remnant of Israel shall be as a dew from 
the Lord, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth 
for the sons of men." To pierce the thick 
darkness of the masses around us with the 
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, should be 
our constant aim ; nor should we be content 
without sharing in that which is the glory of 
our land — the diffusion of the blessings of 
Christ's religion to earth's remotest bounds. 
To reach this " mark and prize of our high 
calling," our own religion must be nourished 
up in the house we have now founded, to all the 
glorious eminence of the Church's happiest 
days ; and the supplications we there offer 



42 HISTORY OF THE 

must be " the effectual fervent prayers of the 
righteous, which prevail much." 

"For my house, saith the Lord, shall be 
called the house of prayer for all people." " He 
never said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in 
vain ;" but Christ has declared, " wherever two 
or three are gathered together in my name, there 
am I in the midst of them ; and if two of you 
shall agree on earth, as touching any thing that 
they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my 
father who is in heaven." Knowing, then, that 
though " heaven and earth shall pass away, 
Christ's words shall never pass away, till all be 
fulfilled ;" we rear this building, assured of his 
presence, which is " the beauty and glory of 
the Sanctuary." We shall see him " walking 
amidst the golden candlesticks with eyes of 
fire," and hear him say, " All the churches shall 
know that I am he that searcheth the hearts 
and trieth the reins." He will " sanctify and 
cleanse us by the washing of water by the 
word, that he may present us to himself, a glo- 
rious church, without spot or blemish, or any 
such thing." Having made us " more than 
conquerors" over the world and sin and death, 
he will translate us to " the general assembly 
and church of the first bom that are written in 
heaven." Bat the church, united to an immor- 
tal head, cannot die. Instead of the fathers, he 
will raise up the children, who shall say, 
" Thou art my father's God 5 and thou shalt be 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 43 

my own God, in an everlasting covenant that 
shall never be forgotten." If the offspring fail, 
or, like Esau, despise, for a morsel of meat, 
their heavenly birthright ; he who has the key 
of hearts, and " openeth, and no man shutteth," 
will " take the children of strangers, and give 
them a name and a place within his house, 
better than of sons and of daughters." u For 
other sheep I have," saith the shepherd and 
bishop of souls, " who are not of this fold; 
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my 
voice, and there shall be one fold and one shep- 
herd." " He shall come down like rain upon the 
mown grass, as showers that water the earth. 
There shall be a handful of com on the top of the 
mountains, the fruit thereof shall shake like 
Lebanon, and they of this city shall flourish 
like grass of the earth. His name shall endure 
for ever ; his name shall be continued as long 
as the sun, and men shall be blessed in him ; 
all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be 
the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only 
doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glo- 
rious name for ever, and let the whole earth be 
filled with his glory, Amen and Amen. The 
prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." 

The Rev. John Adey, son-in-law to Mr. 
Jones, the former minister at Silver Street, then 
led the devotion by repeating the 118th Psalm, 
according to Dr. Watts's version, which was 
sung by the assembly. 



44 HISTORY OF THE 

" See what a living stone 
The builders did refuse ; 
Yet God hath built his church thereon, 
In spite of envious Jews. 

rt The scribe and angry priest 
Reject thine only Son ; 
Yet on this rock shall Sion rest 
As the chief corner-stone. 

" Hosannato the King 

Of David's royal blood : 
Bless him, ye saints ; he comes to bring 
Salvation from your God. 

" We bless thine holy word, 

Which all this grace displays; 
And offer on thine altar, Lord, 
Our sacrifice of praise." 

The Rev. Mr. Freeman, formerly minister at 
Kidderminster, where he may be said to have 
succeeded Richard Baxter, afterwards mis- 
sionary in Madagascar, and now minister at 
Walthamstow, one of the foreign secretaries of 
the London Missionary Society, closed the 
service on the ground, with prayer and the 
benediction. 

The assembly then adjourned to the School 
Rooms adjoining to the site of the new chapel, 
to take refreshments, when a hymn was sung ; 
after which was delivered an Epitome of the 
History of the Church in Silver Street, which is 
here given in greater detail. 

Mr. Freeman afterwards addressed the com- 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 45 

pany, to express the deep interest he felt in the 
engagements of that day. For he observed, 
that his father and mother having joined the 
congregation at Silver Street, he being then a 
child, his name was enrolled as the first scholar 
in the Sabbath School which Mr. Jones at that 
time formed, and which has since continued to 
be an eminent blessing to the rising race. Be- 
sides Mr. Freeman, several others have issued 
from this seminary of religious knowledge, 
The historic sketch having interested and in- 
formed him, he complained that he was unable 
to carry away in his memory all the informa- 
tion that he so much prized, and, therefore, 
wished it might be printed, for more permanent 
usefulness. Dr. Bennett having expressed his 
readiness to undertake the task, provided it 
might yield fifty pounds towards the erection of 
the new chapel, Mr. Freeman made a hand- 
some offer towards the object, and others fol- 
lowed ; one of the company being a printer, 
engaged to execute his part of the work with- 
out profit. 

Mr. James then followed, adverting to some 
circumstances in that day's proceedings which 
were to him of peculiar interest. The Trea- 
surer of the building-fund had been a member 
of his former flock in the City, and had been, 
for many years, his most tried and valued 
friend, and the minister who was to officiate in 
the new chapel had been his pastor, at Romsey, 
where the speaker had witnessed another 



46 HISTORY OF THE 

spacious and handsome chapel reared by the 
liberality of the flock. He observed that he 
could not wish any thing better for the present 
company, than that they might enjoy, in the 
place they were building, such prosperity of 
religion as he had witnessed in that congrega- 
tion from which he went forth, from secular 
pursuits, to study for the ministry, and to preach 
the gospel of Christ. 

The Rev. Samuel Kidd, Professor of Chi- 
nese, in University College, London, then ad- 
dressed the company, on the high superiority of 
their circumstances beyond those of the people 
among whom he had laboured, in the Chinese 
College at Malacca. He repeated, both in 
Chinese and English, several appropriate 
maxims of the most numerous and singular em- 
pire on earth, upon the importance of a good 
foundation. He then exhibited the dreary 
darkness of the wisest of heathen nations, for 
want of that evangelical light and liberty which 
we enjoy; but expressed his confident hope, 
that, in China too, such scenes as this day had 
witnessed would be enjoyed, and that, where 
now idol temples filled the land, houses of 
prayer would be founded ; and it would be felt 
that " this is life eternal, to know the only true 
God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent." 

Thus closed the services of a day to which 
many had looked forward through long and try- 
ing delays, and from which all returned thank- 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 47 

ful for a scene of sacred harmony, religious in- 
struction, and animating hope ; breathing to 
heaven the inspired prayer, " O Lord, I be- 
seech thee, send now prosperity." A collection 
was made towards defraying the expenses of 
the building, and the cards of admission con- 
tained a memorial of the event. 



We have rapidly glanced over two hundred 
years of the history of a church replete with in- 
structive events ; but who can anticipate what 
shall occur in an equal period of time to come ? 
While futurity is hidden from us, we may learn, 
from the past, what effects we should expect 
from each cause. When the Christian church 
had been long supposed to be one unwieldy 
mass, under the domination of the Pope ; or 
the population of a kingdom under its secular 
head ; it was deemed strange to call a single 
assembly of believers a church, to which we are 
now familiarised by thousands of instances, 
where all the ends for which a church was in- 
stituted have been attained. When it was con- 
demned as novel, Owen undertook to prove 
that Christians knew no other than a congrega- 
tional church for several centuries ; having 
derived this form from the apostles of Christ. 
Christianity itself was once a novelty, as true 
religion always is to him that receives it ; for 
" if any man be in Christ, he is a new crea- 
ture ; old things are passed away, and all things 



48 HISTORY OF THE 

are become new." Nor bad even those who 
had practically abandoned it, been able to 
escape the ancient idea ; for writers of the 
Roman and Presbyterian communions, have, 
with the establishment of this country, defined 
a church as " a congregation of faithful men, in 
which the word of God is preached, and its or- 
dinances are duly administered-." 

Denounced, at first, as an impracticable 
theory, the congregational system has stood the 
test of ages, and has spread its churches, not 
only over England, Wales, Scotland, and Ire- 
land, but in America, South Africa, our Indian 
possessions, Australia, and the Polynesian isles. 
The less this system admits of union with 
the civil state, the more it accords with the 
celebrated declaration of its Lord — " My 
kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom 
were of this world, then would my servants 
fight ; but now is my kingdom not from hence. n 
Renouncing all civil force, and knowing no other 
than voluntary associations, congregational 
churches are the cure for that foulest of all pests, 
religious persecution ; which has stained Chris- 
tianity with the odium of a crime once peculiar 
to its foes— the employment of the soldier's 
arms, instead of that sword of the spirit which 
reaches the soul, only to wound, that it may save. 
The long-lost glories of our benevolent religion 



* See article 19 of the Church of England, 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 19 

will then be restored, when no other churches 
shall be known but bands of holy brethren, 
united by force of truth and love. 

Without State pay, and even while their own 
resources are taken to support another com- 
munion, scriptural churches have been main- 
tained by the primitive offerings of the faithful, 
which have also secured the continuance of 
sacred learning — the knowledge of Scripture 
in its original tongues. A Henry, a Watts, a 
Lardner, a Doddridge, a Guyse, and a Gill, 
have succeeded to our Owens and our Howes, 
and furnished instruction, not only to our own 
communion, but to others, though not always 
acknowledged. Theology, of which Lord 
Bacon says, " it is the Sabbath and port of all 
my labours," has ever flourished among Inde- 
pendent churches, and has been confessed, 
even by our opponents, to be a science pecu- 
liarly our own. 

Personal religion, however, is the highest 
glory of any church. A system of ecclesias- 
tical polity, not instituted for its own sake, 
becomes pernicious when made more than a 
means for the preservation of u the doctrine 
which is according to godliness." That a 
church is " a congregation of faithful men,' 1 
becomes a salutary truth, by leading its mem- 
bers to ask, — Do I, then, bear this character ? 
They who receive another into their com- 
munion, on such a profession, are perpetually 

D 



50 HISTORY OF THE 

reminded, that, if they possess not what they 
require, they are self-deceivers, or hypocrites. 
To entrust to the body of the faithful the choice 
of its pastor, or bishop, is a better security for 
a holy ministry than any popular election by 
indiscriminate masses, or any presentation by a 
patron or prime minister. To commit the pecu- 
niary affairs of the church to deacons chosen 
from among themselves, was ordained by the 
Apostles, that pastors " should give themselves 
wholly to prayer and the ministry of the word." 
By this scriptural order many churches have 
secured a succession of pious members and 
faithful ministers, for hundreds of years. Can 
this be said of any other system ? 

But as the predicted apostacy proves that 
even churches formed and regulated by apostles, 
may depart from their faith and order, we are 
warned to watch and pray, lest, " having be- 
gun in the spirit, we end in the flesh." We 
may have the form of godliness without the 
power, while others, with a less scriptural or- 
der, may have more of the spirit of the gospel. 
Alienation of heart from those who, while they 
differ from us, prove themselves disciples of 
Christ, is the worst consequence of the divi- 
sions that have arisen in the church. To this, 
therefore, w^e should oppose catholic charity— 
the perfect bond that should unite all in whom 
is seen the image of Christ ; ever listening to 
the prayer offered by our High Priest, as he 



CHURCH IN SILVER STREET. 51 

passed within the veil, " That all my disciples 
may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in 
thee; that they also may be one in us, that 
the world mav believe that thou hast sent me." 



52 



0Lini$tm ant) 0Li$$io\\mc$ 

Formerly belonging to 

THE SABBATH SCHOOL, SILVER STREET. 



The following ministers and missionaries, with the wives of 
two others, were scholars or teachers in the Sabbath School, 
at Silver Street : — 

Rev. Jos. John Freeman, Walthamstow. 

Rev. Matthew Freeman, of Cheshire. 

Rev. George Wright, late of Lincolnshire. 

Rev. J. Graves. 

Mr. J. D. Pearson, late Missionary, Chinsurah. 

Mrs. Ellis, Taheite. 

Mrs. Wilson, Taheite. 

Mr. H. E. Taylor, Missionary, Jamaica. 

Mr. Rice, Missionary, East Indies. 

Rev. Mr. Medway, late of Melbourne. 

Rev. Thomas Davies, Tintwistle, Lancashire. 

Rev. Mr. Rook, Faversham, Kent. 

Rev. Anthony Brown, of Okenden. 

Rev. Timothy Atkinson, Quebec. 

Rev. Mr. Witty, Woodbridge. 

Rev. Edward Jenkins, Maidstone. 

Rev. Mark Drury, Cheshunt. 



THE FOLLOWING WORKS, 

BY 

DR. BENNETT, 

MAY BE HAD OF 

HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. 

PATERNOSTER-ROW. 

LECTURES on the HISTORY of CHRIST. 
Second Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. price £l. Is. 

TESTIMONIES OF THE REVIEWS. 

"The author's choice of subject is singularly happy, and 
may render him an object of envy for appropriating to himself 
the first of all theological themes. To find a work equal to 
this in interest would be difficult. One striking and ingenious, 
but pious and useful, remark after another, presents itself to 
the mind. The method is natural and simple. In the style 
will be found considerable beauty, blended often with great 
simplicity, and vigorously expressing the sense. 

" In family reading, the work will deeply impress the me- 
mory, and throw a light over the History of Christ. The eye 
must be drowsy indeed that can be closed during the perusal, 
and the ear deaf that is not constrained to listen. Not a pas- 
sage is tedious : here is rich information — multum in parvo. 
As an exposition of the four gospels, this work is valuable to 
ministers. Divested of all the dryness of criticism, it con- 
tains whatever is valuable in that branch of knowledge. 
Nothing on the subject has ever afforded us equal pleasure." 



14 Each succeeding scene of the Saviour's life is treated with 
equal ability, and every lecture is replete with useful observa- 
tions, and sound and just interpretation. They are all useful 
and judicious, and the author's manner is uniformly sober and 
scriptural. It is impossible to open at any part without find- 
ing the evangelical strain of the original biographer ably eluci- 
dated and expounded. On the grand subjects of the Thief on 
the Cross, on the Death of Christ, and the Resurrection, the 
author's ability, as an expositor and divine, will be abundantly 
manifest." 



54 WORKS BY DR. BENNETT. 

LECTURESonthe PREACHING of CHRIST. 

In one thick volume, 8vo. price 10s. 6d. 

TESTIMONY OF REVIEWERS. 

" We regret that we omitted to notice the second edition of 
Dr. Bennett's Lectures on the History of Christ, which, how- 
ever, do not stand in need of the notice that a work less 
known, and from the pen of a writer less popular, might 
require. With the volume now before us, they may be re- 
garded as a complete harmony of the gospels, as well as a com- 
mentary on every fact in the gospel history, far surpassing in 
general interest and adaptation all ordinary expositions. With 
views of truth eminently evangelical, and with stores of theo- 
logy rarely surpassed, our author possesses excellent powers of 
description, which impart to his biographical delineations much 
of truth and reality, and place his readers in the position most 
favourable for receiving the true impression of the scenes that 
pass in review before them. Few writers on the evangelical 
history have better succeeded in bringing forth its full meaning, 
or giving prominence to the illustrious personage who is the 
glory of every page. 

44 The volume on Christ's Preaching is a complete work in 
itself. Those who possess the former volumes will, of course, 
perfect the series ; but if any should think it sufficient to fur- 
nish his library with a full exposition of our Lord's discourses, 
this volume is one of the most complete— eminently adapted 
for Sabbath evening reading for a whole year." 



" The Discourses, forty-three in number, are in chronologi- 
cal order, and delicate relations are pointed out which escape 
the cursory reader. Those who wish to read this as a part of 
the author's History of Christ, are directed how to keep up the 
connexion, and give to the three volumes the completeness of a 
whole." 

" Seldom indeed have we examined any book with pleasure 
equal to that we have felt in reading Dr. Bennett's Lectures on 
the Preaching of Christ. We greatly admire them for the 
common sense and practical character of their piety. Dr. B. 
is no common-place theologian or declaimer. His works are 
full of point — they pierce the heart, and tell upon the feelings 
and conduct of those who hear or read them. Impression 
must be produced, and that impression is always of the best 
kind. May the author long live, and enjoy health to bless the 
church with similar works." 



' This is a work of great interest and merit, which will not 



WORKS BY DR. BENNETT. 55 

only sustain, but advance, the high reputation of its now vene- 
rable author. The whole work is characterised by sound theo- 
logy, just criticism, and safe and sober interpretations. We 
most cordially recommend it as of the highest value, unfolding 
the ripest sentiments of a vigorous, learned, and holy mind, 
on a theme worthy of the powers of an angel to unfold and 
recommend.' ' 



HISTORY of DISSENTERS; from the Year 
1808 (when the History of Dissenters, by David Bogue and 
James Bennett, closed) to the present Time. One vol. 8vo. 
price 12s. 

This work contains the more modern history, with an ac- 
count of the most eminent men who have died during the last 
thirty years, and the changes and controversies which have 
occurred. 

ANTIDOTE to INFIDELITY; First and 
Second Parts : or, the External and Internal Evidences of 
Christianity. With an account of the Public Dispute, held at 
Silver Street, with Mr. Robert Taylor, the Infidel Lecturer. 
12mo. price 5s. 6d. 

THE COMMUNION of SAINTS; or, the 

Scriptural Principles of Church Government. 12mo. neat 
cloth lettered, price 2s. 

" The Congregational denomination is indebted to Dr. 
Bennett for a very able illustration and defence of its distin- 
guishing principles. His genius has thrown a charm around an 
apparently dry subject, — a charm which few would be able to 
give it : while the unaffected liberality and piety, which are con- 
spicuous on every page, will obtain for this little work an ac- 
ceptance with the enlightened and devout, which genius alone 
can never secure." — Congregational Magazine, 

" It is well written, and well argued, — manly, honest, and 
powerful. Principles are laid down with precision and firm- 
ness. They are supported with courage and skill. Difficulties 
are fairly met. Objections are # treated with the utmost can- 
dour. When they cannot be removed — and that is seldom in- 
deed — the fact is admitted without scruple. The argument is 
fully carried out, and the spirit displayed from beginning to 
end is eminently upright and Christian." — Eclectic Review. 



56 WORKS BY DR. BENNETT. 

JUSTIFICATION by FAITH, as revealed in 
Scripture, against the Council of Trent ; and Mr. Newman's 
Lectures on Justification. 

This volume, in defence of the Protestant doctrine, and 
against the Puseyite attempt to restore that of the church of 
Rome, is dedicated to Prince Albert, and is commended in the 
Christian Observer, the Eclectic Review, and the Congrega- 
tional and Evangelical Magazines. 



To be had at Jackson and Walford's, 
St. FauVs Churchyard. 

The THEOLOGY of the. EARLY CHRIS- 
TIAN CHURCH. Drawn from the Writings of the Fathers 
of the first Three Centuries. With copious Explanations and 
Reflections. 8vo. price 10s. 6d. 



Wilson & Ogilvy, Printers, 57, Skinner Street, London. 



MAY 7 1902 



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